Nintendo Land (2012)
A collection of twelve not-so-mini-games for up to five players and built specifically around the asymmetric gameplay opportunities enabled by the Wii U GamePad, featuring theme park attractions recalling classic Nintendo franchises.
First released
Nov 18, 2012
Aliases
NintendoLand
Developed by
Nintendo EAD
Published by
Nintendo
Platforms
Wii U
Genres
Action, Driving/Racing, Shooter, Minigame Collection, Puzzle
Themes
Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Rating
ESRB: E10+, CERO: A, OFLC: PG, PEGI: 7+
Releases
- WiiU - NintendoLand United States
- WiiU - Nintendo Land Japan
- WiiU - Nintendo Land Australia
- WiiU - Nintendo Land United Kingdom
- WiiU - Nintendoland (Nintendo Selects) United States
Community reviews
A must own title for the Wii-U
As a game of mini-games I feel the best way to review this title is to look at each game individually but I will make a few broader comments before I delve into how much I enjoyed each mini-game in particular.
Overall this is a great game, particularly in multiplayer, where I think it is one of the very best experiences on the console. Visually, all the games look great and have a nice shiny polish to them that really sends them popping out the screen. This game is a real treat for the eyes. It's also a very accessible game. Whenever I have guests who aren't gamers as such I always crack this game out and pretty much everyone loves it. There is something for everyone here and most games aren't hard to pick up. That doesn't mean it's easy however, and some of the games get really, really difficult as you get to the harder stages.
With those thoughts out the way, here's what I think of each game.
Multiplayer Games
Animal Crossing – Sweet Day - Chasing your friends while they're collecting sweets is a lot of fun. I love the visual style, and the fact that the person with the gamepad controls one character with each stick. It's not my favourite of the multiplayer games, but I've had a lot of fun playing this with family nonetheless.
The Legend of Zelda – Battle Quest - A multiplayer co-op game. This one is great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed playing through it with 3 of my siblings a few months ago. The person with the gamepad has a bow and arrow which works very well once you get the hang of it and the rest of the players use Wii remotes to slash their swords around. The Wii remotes work well and the sword action really matches up with what your are actually doing. I loved the co-op element to the game and considering this is just a mini-game there are a lot of levels, providing a good few hours of fun.
Luigi's Ghost Mansion – Haunting Hijinks - A household favourite (along with Mario Chase and Metroid Blast game). This one uses the gamepad brilliantly, playing as the ghost or the people being chased is a totally different experience and yet equally fun. This game is easy for anyone to pick-up, a great way to entertain a bunch of friends even if they're not all hardcore gamers. Top marks from me.
Mario Chase – The Great Getaway - As mentioned above this is another household favourite. It's essentially a game of tag, but the beauty of it is in its simplicity. Again the way the gamepad is used is brilliant (with the person being chased being able to see where the other players are on a radar) and leads to a lot of fun. A great example of how a game does not have to be complicated and deep to be fun.
Metroid Blast – Deep Space Shootout - Another huge hit with friends and family. This one is a little harder to get into with some FPS control type elements and a slightly over-complicated control scheme. Nevertheless it's not too hard to get the hang of and members of my family who haven't played a lot of games picked it up after some practice. Flying the spaceship with the gamepad however is pretty hard with a lot of things to think about but once mastered is a lot of fun. There's a decent selection of arenas and hours and hours of fun to be had.
Pikmin Adventure – Tame The Wilderness – This is probably the game that's been played least as a multiplayer game of all the options available. People generally just find it far too confusing and mental to figure out what on earth is going on. I've dabbled in it on a single-player level and found it to be enjoyable, with more depth than is immediately obvious. Not bad by any means, but could perhaps do with a better explanation of the game's mechanics.
Single Player
Balloon Trip Breeze – I love this one, visually it's one of my very favourite mini-games and I love how you brush the gamepad screen to create wind to steer your balloon. A great single-player game you can pick up and play very quickly but that gets more and more difficult the further along you get. Like most of the games on this list, I haven't managed to complete it yet!
Donkey Kong's Crash Course – Another great single-player one that is easy to just pick-up and play. Tilting the gamepad to the right and left to move your kart down the course is great fun and very challenging. I also love the homage to the original Donkey Kong in the visual style.
Takamura's Ninja Castle – Love. This. Game. It's essentially a shooting gallery where you throw discs to knock out Ninja enemies by swiping and aiming the gamepad. This works brilliantly and is a really enjoyable experience. This is one of the single-player games that is fun to pass around in a multiplayer environment as it makes for fun spectating too.
Captain Falcon's Twister Race – Steering with the gamepad works well, it's very slow compared to actual F-Zero games which is kind of disappointing but that doesn't detract from the difficulty which gets pretty heavy in the later stages. Another fun game to pass between each other in multiplayer. Not revolutionary in any way, but good fun.
Yoshi's Fruit Kart – Another game that uses the gamepad extremely well. The idea is to collect everything on the screen to open the exit door. You do this by drawing a route for your Yoshi kart on the gamepad. Sounds easy enough but you can only see the items that need collecting on the main TV screen and so you have to use visual markers to help figure out where you need to draw your line. This is one of the games that I've found non-gamers really love. I like it too, although I find it a little slow at times. Nevertheless its good fun and a really inventive use of the gamepad, which is impressive.
Octopus Dance – This one's essentially a rhythm game where you move your gamepad sticks to move various parts of your Mii's body in time to the music. This really messes with your head in the final stages and although its not that much fun on your own its great as a pass it around multiplayer game where watching your friends fail miserably is always incredibly entertaining.
Overall, this is a must-own for the Wii-U in my eyes. It is one of the very best multiplayer experiences so far (along with Mario Kart 8) and a great way to get everyone involved with most of the games being really quick to pick up. It is also good fun to just dip into on your own, where trying to get to the final stages of each game is a fun and challenging experience. My only issue is the lack of ability to save your progress in the single-player games which means once you die you have to start all over again with only your high scores to show for how far you've got. Regardless of this, if you own a Wii-U and like incredibly fun multiplayer then you really need to pick this up, particularly as you can quite easily find it for less than £20 at the moment. Probably the best showcasing of what the gamepad can do on the console so far.
Overall this is a great game, particularly in multiplayer, where I think it is one of the very best experiences on the console. Visually, all the games look great and have a nice shiny polish to them that really sends them popping out the screen. This game is a real treat for the eyes. It's also a very accessible game. Whenever I have guests who aren't gamers as such I always crack this game out and pretty much everyone loves it. There is something for everyone here and most games aren't hard to pick up. That doesn't mean it's easy however, and some of the games get really, really difficult as you get to the harder stages.
With those thoughts out the way, here's what I think of each game.
Multiplayer Games
Animal Crossing – Sweet Day - Chasing your friends while they're collecting sweets is a lot of fun. I love the visual style, and the fact that the person with the gamepad controls one character with each stick. It's not my favourite of the multiplayer games, but I've had a lot of fun playing this with family nonetheless.
The Legend of Zelda – Battle Quest - A multiplayer co-op game. This one is great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed playing through it with 3 of my siblings a few months ago. The person with the gamepad has a bow and arrow which works very well once you get the hang of it and the rest of the players use Wii remotes to slash their swords around. The Wii remotes work well and the sword action really matches up with what your are actually doing. I loved the co-op element to the game and considering this is just a mini-game there are a lot of levels, providing a good few hours of fun.
Luigi's Ghost Mansion – Haunting Hijinks - A household favourite (along with Mario Chase and Metroid Blast game). This one uses the gamepad brilliantly, playing as the ghost or the people being chased is a totally different experience and yet equally fun. This game is easy for anyone to pick-up, a great way to entertain a bunch of friends even if they're not all hardcore gamers. Top marks from me.
Mario Chase – The Great Getaway - As mentioned above this is another household favourite. It's essentially a game of tag, but the beauty of it is in its simplicity. Again the way the gamepad is used is brilliant (with the person being chased being able to see where the other players are on a radar) and leads to a lot of fun. A great example of how a game does not have to be complicated and deep to be fun.
Metroid Blast – Deep Space Shootout - Another huge hit with friends and family. This one is a little harder to get into with some FPS control type elements and a slightly over-complicated control scheme. Nevertheless it's not too hard to get the hang of and members of my family who haven't played a lot of games picked it up after some practice. Flying the spaceship with the gamepad however is pretty hard with a lot of things to think about but once mastered is a lot of fun. There's a decent selection of arenas and hours and hours of fun to be had.
Pikmin Adventure – Tame The Wilderness – This is probably the game that's been played least as a multiplayer game of all the options available. People generally just find it far too confusing and mental to figure out what on earth is going on. I've dabbled in it on a single-player level and found it to be enjoyable, with more depth than is immediately obvious. Not bad by any means, but could perhaps do with a better explanation of the game's mechanics.
Single Player
Balloon Trip Breeze – I love this one, visually it's one of my very favourite mini-games and I love how you brush the gamepad screen to create wind to steer your balloon. A great single-player game you can pick up and play very quickly but that gets more and more difficult the further along you get. Like most of the games on this list, I haven't managed to complete it yet!
Donkey Kong's Crash Course – Another great single-player one that is easy to just pick-up and play. Tilting the gamepad to the right and left to move your kart down the course is great fun and very challenging. I also love the homage to the original Donkey Kong in the visual style.
Takamura's Ninja Castle – Love. This. Game. It's essentially a shooting gallery where you throw discs to knock out Ninja enemies by swiping and aiming the gamepad. This works brilliantly and is a really enjoyable experience. This is one of the single-player games that is fun to pass around in a multiplayer environment as it makes for fun spectating too.
Captain Falcon's Twister Race – Steering with the gamepad works well, it's very slow compared to actual F-Zero games which is kind of disappointing but that doesn't detract from the difficulty which gets pretty heavy in the later stages. Another fun game to pass between each other in multiplayer. Not revolutionary in any way, but good fun.
Yoshi's Fruit Kart – Another game that uses the gamepad extremely well. The idea is to collect everything on the screen to open the exit door. You do this by drawing a route for your Yoshi kart on the gamepad. Sounds easy enough but you can only see the items that need collecting on the main TV screen and so you have to use visual markers to help figure out where you need to draw your line. This is one of the games that I've found non-gamers really love. I like it too, although I find it a little slow at times. Nevertheless its good fun and a really inventive use of the gamepad, which is impressive.
Octopus Dance – This one's essentially a rhythm game where you move your gamepad sticks to move various parts of your Mii's body in time to the music. This really messes with your head in the final stages and although its not that much fun on your own its great as a pass it around multiplayer game where watching your friends fail miserably is always incredibly entertaining.
Overall, this is a must-own for the Wii-U in my eyes. It is one of the very best multiplayer experiences so far (along with Mario Kart 8) and a great way to get everyone involved with most of the games being really quick to pick up. It is also good fun to just dip into on your own, where trying to get to the final stages of each game is a fun and challenging experience. My only issue is the lack of ability to save your progress in the single-player games which means once you die you have to start all over again with only your high scores to show for how far you've got. Regardless of this, if you own a Wii-U and like incredibly fun multiplayer then you really need to pick this up, particularly as you can quite easily find it for less than £20 at the moment. Probably the best showcasing of what the gamepad can do on the console so far.